Lindsey Graham and John McCain Going to Totally Susan Rice John Brennan

Senator Lindsey Graham is taking the September 11 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi more seriously than absolutely anyone on the planet, Senator Lindsey Graham recently attempted to demonstrate. “I have not forgotten about the Benghazi debacle and still have many questions about what transpired before, during and after the attack on our consulate,” Graham told Fox News yesterday. Was that. . . an issue? Allegedly forgetting? If we have learned anything from the occasional unmarked passage of our family members’ birthdays, it is this: usually the reason why people claim, unprompted, not to have forgotten about something is that they have secretly forgotten it. (We have also learned mnemonic devices for several crucial dates.) Graham continued: “In that regard, I do not believe we should confirm anyone as director of the C.I.A. until our questions are answered.”

Graham said that “the stonewalling [regarding the attacks] must stop,” and suggested holding off Brennan’s C.I.A.-director nomination process until said stonewalling is at a place where Lindsey Graham wants it.

John McCain, naturally, has problems with Brennan too, though his concerns are uncharacteristically quite legitimate. McCain is not totally on board with Brennan’s participation in George W. Bush’s Bond-villan-like interrogation program. “I appreciate John Brennan’s long record of service to our nation, but I have many questions and concerns about his nomination to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, especially what role he played in the so-called enhanced interrogation programs while serving at the C.I.A. during the last administration, as well as his public defense of those programs,” McCain said in a statement.

Ha! “Appreciate” as a verb: if there is one other thing we have learned from the occasional unmarked passage of our family members’ birthdays, it is that “appreciate” as a verb basically means its opposite.